March 25, 2016
A+ Motel and RV Park
Sulphur, LA

We did another short hop west on I-10...about 95 miles, and we found ourselves at A+ Motel and RV Park. The name sounds like a less than stellar location but it is really a very nice, small RV park.

All  the facilities are well maintained. They have 2 pools.

A fishing pond.

And asphalt roads with concrete sites.

They have pull through and back in sites, and except for a few too many short turns where the roads are bordered with a few boulders to ensure you stay off the grass, they accommodate big rigs pretty well.

I have to say so far Louisiana wins the prize for worst interstate roads. There were several locations spanning many miles where the concrete roads gave you a washboard effect, battering you as you drove down the road. Most of the bridges did not smoothly transition to the highway causing almost a pothole effect. I was lucky to be able to do 55 thru most of these areas. The interstate had been closed going from LA to TX but the water has receded and the road is now open. Hopefully they are in better shape than what we have experienced so far.

We will only be staying the night here in Sulphur because we have more rain forecasted for Sunday. We will make the journey to Houston tomorrow... Our choices were to push on to get there tomorrow or wait until Monday. We chose Houston on the weekend instead of a weekday....hopefully we chose well...

March 16, 2016
Cajun Palms RV Resort
Breaux Bridge, LA

We traveled another 155 miles west today on I-10. We went through Baton Rouge and stopped about 15 miles east of Lafayette in a town called Breaux Bridge. Cajun Palms is the name of the RV resort and it is a high end resort with all the amenities.

Even the registration office is nice...

All the roads and sites are concrete and very well maintained. They have a huge pool, miniature golf, water park, fishing lake, clubs, and activities. Here are some pics of the pool, lake, and cabins.

Most sites are pull through but there are some back ins. They even have executive sites that are covered completely or have just a covered awning. Our site is nice but it's a little shorter than we would prefer. However, we were able to park both vehicles on the site and still have plenty of room for lounge chairs and a grill....what more do you need ;>)

We left Buccaneer State Park 2 days early because we are expected to have 4 days of rain. We wanted to get here before it started. This area has had a lot of rain and flooding in the past week or so and there were signs on I-10 saying the interstate is closed at the LA/TX border. We'll be here for 9 days so we hope that will be reopened before we have to venture further west.

March 14, 2016
New Orleans, LA

Today we drove the 56 miles to New Orleans. The trip down I-10 showed us that there are still a lot of damaged houses and buildings that have not been rebuilt. We drove to 501 Basin Street where the Visitor Center is located. There we bought all day tickets for the City Sightseeing Hop on Hop off tour bus. This is similar to the tours we took in DC, Charleston, and Savannah run by Old Town Trolley however this tour bus was not a great experience. The buses were double decker with limited seating and only ran every 30 minutes and based on capacity you might have to wait another 30 minutes for a second bus....not good.

 

The route they take goes through the French Quarter, French Market, Jackson Square, Downtown, Astrodome, and Gardens. Since we just had the day, we chose to visit the French Quarter, French Market, and Jackson Square.

The architecture was very unique, just like you've seen in pictures and movies.

 

We spent most of out time on Decatur Street which borders the Mississippi River.

By the time we got to the French Market it was lunch time so we had our first taste of the local cuisine at The Gazebo Café.

Most of the places had some type of live music playing, of course, Jazz, Blues, or Dixieland.

We ordered the local favorites, Jambalaya and Muffaletta.

 

The Muffaletta is an Italian sandwich with cheese, ham, salami, bologna, and olives...and that was just a half order..... Both were very good.

Next to the French Market is Jackson Square which is a nice park dedicated to Andrew Jackson.

We couldn't visit New Orleans without stopping at Café Du Monde for Beignets...

They were really good and very messy...powdered sugar everywhere.

And of course no trip to New Orleans would be complete without a visit to a cemetery.

They were lined up to get in.... never expected that, and of course the live music. By the way the white pyramid inside to the left (you just see the tip) is Nicolas Cage's..... of course he's not there yet....the things you see and learn in New Orleans ;>)

We had a great time visiting the City and checking off another bucket list item.

March 13 - 15, 2016
Buccaneer State Park
Waveland, MS

Today we traveled another 185 miles west on I-10 crossing Alabama and Mississippi and stopping just short of the Louisiana border. We went through a big tunnel in Mobile and that was exciting. For a Sunday there was a lot of traffic but it went pretty well. We got off I-10 and went south about 15 miles to the Gulf Coast. We had gotten conflicting directions on which road to take to get to the park so I called them and they gave me a completely different road to take.   When you have a 2 ton rig that is 9 foot wide, over 13 feet tall, and is over 60 feet long hitched to the truck, you have to be cautious. I wrote down the directions because my GPS was not routing me the recommended way. When we finally got past the point where I had to ignore the GPS, there was a street sign that indicated what appeared to be the correct street I was looking for...so I took it. Suffice it to say it ended up being the wrong street and it took me over a very high centered railroad track. I heard a slight noise and thought I might have just slightly scraped bottom, but once we got to the park and set up we noticed some stress fractures in the fiberglass underneath the nose.

This one is the worst but there is another one on the opposite side. The king pin must have flexed enough to stress the fiberglass skin causing it to crack. This should be a minor repair but being my first mistake to cause damage I'm pretty upset about it. Needless to say I'll go out of my way next time to make sure I get to the correct road.

Buccaneer State Park was rebuilt in 2004 after being wiped out by Katrina. You may recall that Waveland, MS was where it came ashore.

This is a picture from the entrance and the water in the corner is the Gulf.

This is a great spot for families especially in the summer because they have a couple of pools, a water slide,  and even a wave park. Pretty unusual for a State Park. The facilities are nice and all roads and sites are paved, however it's pretty tight for big rigs...better for trailers and smaller rigs. All sites are back in and most appear to have a generous slope making it difficult to level the rig. We placed 3, 2x12s under each jack.

We're in a small loop with several big A class motorhomes.

Here's another view of the Gulf from the front entrance.

We're heading into New Orleans tomorrow to do some sightseeing so I'll do another update then.

March 8 - 13, 2016
Eagles Landing RV Park
Holt, FL

We traveled 165 miles west on I-10 which took about 2 1/2 hours. We crossed over into central time so we gained an hour. We stopped at 2 rest stops along the way, more to eat up some time so that we didn't get to our destination before check in which was noon. We rolled up at 11:50 a.m. so we were right on time.

Eagles Landing is a nice small park owned and operated by a very nice and friendly "younger" couple (anyone younger than us is young). We had a nice conversation with both at check in and were very impressed with the park and all the work they put into it. There are about 50 sites with gravel roads and gravel or dirt sites. The park is very well maintained but does not have a lot of bells or whistles, however at $27 a night and plenty of space for each site, we like this park better than the last 3 or 4.

Here are a few pictures of our site.

 

 

Here is a shot from our site looking towards the office.

As I said no paved roads or concrete sites but neat and well maintained (and a good price).

We were originally only supposed to spend 2 nights here as a stop over on our way to New Orleans but there is a severe storm front heading this way so we chose to stay 5 nights and wait for the storm to pass....ain't it great being able to do want you want, when you want ;>)......

We'll head out of here on Sunday the 13th so in the meantime we plan to go see the beaches along the Gulf. We're only 30 minutes from Navarre Beach and Pensacola Beach. Fort Walton and Destin are also fairly close.

March 6 - 8, 2016
Tallahassee RV Park
Tallahassee, FL

Today we drove another short distance west on I-10. After going 93 miles we arrived at Tallahassee RV Park.

Not a great shot of the sign because it's right off a busy highway so you don't have a lot of time to take the picture. This is another small RV park similar to the last one. Approximately 50 sites, mostly pull through. There are lots of tall pine trees that provide some good shade and the branches are trimmed high so as not to encroach on your coach ;>)

The entrance is a little strange in that they have you weaving left and right a few times rather than having a straight shot to the office. At the office all roads converge into one single width road that incoming and outgoing traffic have to use (bad design). To make matters worse they have incoming traffic make a sharp left turn between two trees.

That was fun.......

The sites are OK with plenty of length, just not a lot of width (never had that problem before :>) ) We're packed in close to our neighbors but there is good room for both vehicles.

We'll rest here tomorrow and then head 165 miles west out I-10 to beautiful Holt, FL. No, we haven't heard of it either but it's another short stop before getting to Waveland, MS. Where's that you say.....right next to New Orleans....sho' nuf' y'all.... Beignets and jambalaya...we can't wait.

March 3 - 6, 2016
Lake City Campground
Lake City, FL

"On the road again....." After 3 months of sitting in the same site we finally packed up, broke camp, and hit the road. We only traveled 91 miles, going north on I-75 and a few miles east on I-10 to Lake City Campground.

This was a short trip to work out the bugs and get tuned up for what will be a busy 8 months of traveling from the east coast to the west coast.

This "Campground" is not much to write home about, or even to blog about, but it suited our purpose of a place for a short stay. Most sites are pull through but the sites are narrow with trees to contend with making it difficult to position the rig so that the slides, door, and steps are not blocked.

This is an older park that has not been well maintained or upgraded. Based on their location this is probably not a busy park that pulls in many travelers.

Although we do have a site with a water view..... ;>)

It should be fun pulling out of this spot on Sunday. There is a power line that crosses the road in front of our site that appears to be lower than the height of our RV...should be exciting.